Information reaching Techfocus24 indicate that over 70 workers of Glo Ghana are being compelled through Machiavellian tactics to accept chicken change as redundancy packages as the company finally folds up at the end of this month.
Glo’s 2G license expired way back in July 2019, but they did not renew it. Their 3G license is due to expire at the end of this month (January 2024). Meanwhile, in April 2022, they announced all their 800,000 plus customers will be migrated to AirtelTigo, which they did, clearly indicating they were folding up.
The company has therefore resorted to using its last days in the country as a legal corporate entity to whip some 79 Ghanaian workers into accepting to sign a termination letter that completely indemnifies the company and protects it from all labour-related lawsuits in exchange for a severance packages unilaterally determined by Glo.
This is in blatant violation of the labour laws of the country and in direct contraction to Glo’s own promise, in at least two correspondents to the National Labour Commission (NLC), to obey the provisions of the labour law in that regard.
A copy of the “Machiavellian” letter, intercepted by Techfocus24 indicate that Glo, hiding behind a private recruitment agencies called XL Management and Ivory Crest, is compelling the workers to agree and even to covenant (swear) not to sue Glo for what is due them.
Find a copy of the letter below:
The question is, if Glo officials thought they have treated the workers fairly in accordance with the the labour laws of Ghana, as they assured the NLC, why would they craft such a letter to cajole workers into exonerating them of any wrongdoing?
Some of the workers have been telling Techfocus24 that when they received a call to go sign for their chicken change, Glo issued a subtle verbal threat that if they did not go and sign for the money, the company will no longer be in existent by the close of this month and they will completely forfeit their severance packages.
As a result of the threat, majority of the 79 workers have therefore gone and signed for the peanuts even though they know the amounts are far below what they expected.
Computation Confusion
It is not clear how Glo computed the severance packages, but Techfocus24 gathered that someone whose monthly take home pay was GHS2,050 got a little over GHS22,000 as his redundancy package, while another person whose monthly take home pay was over GHS3,000 rather got GHS12,000.
By law, [Section 65(4) of the Labour Act, 2003, Act 651] Glo was supposed to sit and negotiate the redundancy packages with workers and or their representatives. Alternatively, Glo could have followed precedence, and used four basic elements to determine the quantum of the package.
The four elements are:
a. 3 months net salary multiplied by the number of working years
b. Leave component
c. Transportation component
d. Handshake
Even if Glo had refused to pay the transportation and handshake components, a worker with a net salary of GHS2,050, who has worked with Glo for 2010 – 2023 should have walked away with over GHS80,000, but that person was given only GHS22,000.
The workers believe they have been defrauded by Glo as the severance package was not negotiated, as required by law, and its computation woefully fall short of the minimum they expected.
How we got here
The facts of the case are that back on June 10, 2022, Glo Ghana workers, with the assistance of UNICOF, wrote to National Labour Commission (NLC) to mediate the negotiation of their severance packages as Glo had by then indicated it was folding up from the Ghanaian market when it migrated its customers to AirtelTigo in April 2022.
NLC then wrote to Glo on June 13, 2022 over the matter and Glo replied on June 22, 2022 saying the workers were still enjoying their monthly salaries so the demand for negotiation of redundancy packages was premature. Glo then assured NLC that when the time comes for redundancy, they will follow the provisions of the labour law.
After a while of back and forth, NLC eventually ruled on that matter on April 28, 2023, and said that negotiation of redundancy package had not yet been occasioned since the workers were still on monthly salaries. So, the workers’ complaints were dismissed.
In August 2023, however, the works wrote to NLC again saying that Glo had stopped paying them monthly salaries from July 2023 so they needed NLC to take up the matter again, but NLC replied and said it had already ruled on the matter so the workers would have to either file a fresh complaint or go to court.
Glo claimed, on that occasion, that the 79 workers were retrenched back in June 2023, meanwhile, copies of attendance records available to Techfocus24 indicate that as of September 2023, the workers still reported to work and their attendance was duly supervised by the Human Resource Manager of Glo. So, Glo’s claim that the workers appointment were terminated in June 2023, does not hold.
There have since been a bit of back and forth till now, January 2024, six clear months after denying the workers their monthly salaries, and now Glo is hiding behind a recruitment agency to compel the workers into either taking a unilaterally determine chicken change as severance packages or walking away with nothing by the close of this month.
NLC has meanwhile, completely washed its hands off the case as Glo treats Ghanaians who have worked for the company for between 10 and 14 years without salary increment, as though they are some beggars.
According to the workers they earlier tried to seek redress at the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization as well as the National Communications Authority (NCA) but to no avail.
Techfocus24 contacted NCA and they said “We have not received any formal complaint from former Ghanaian Glo workers; when we do, we will act on it accordingly.”
We also reached out to a spokesperson of Glo Ghana and his response was simply that he is not aware of this development so he cannot comment.
